Guard your steps when you go to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.
Read Chapter 5
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Few. As none can arrive at the perfect knowledge of God, they should be reserved in speaking of Him. (Worthington)
De Deo etiam vera loqui periculosum. (Cicero, de Nat.)
In prayer, (Calmet) we must not pretend to give him any information, like the heathens, Matthew vi. 7. (Haydock)
Moreover, it is a good thing to use the tongue sparingly, and to keep a calm and rightly balanced heart in the exercise of speech. For it is not right to give utterance in words to things that are foolish and absurd, or to all that occur to the mind; but we ought to know and reflect, that though we are far separated from heaven, we speak in the hearing of God, and that it is good for us to speak without offense. For as dreams and visions of many kinds attend manifold cares of mind, so also silly talking is conjoined with folly. Moreover, see to it, that a promise made with a vow be made good in fact. This, too, is proper to fools, that they are unreliable. But be true to your word, knowing that it is ranch better for you not to vow or promise to do anything, than to vow and then fail of performance. And you ought by all means to avoid the flood of base words, seeing that God will hear them. For the man who makes such things his study gets no more benefit by them than to see his doings ...
